No Power In The Verse
by wibblywobblywesteros
Summary: In this post series future fiction, the serenity crew has a new job and a stowaway.
1. Chapter 1

Captain Malcolm Reynolds awoke to the sound of someone knocking on his door. Well, it was more like kicking the door than knocking and judging by the sound of the big boots, it was most likely Jayne. He tried to ignore the sound. He prefered staying in his own bed with Inara beside him than to deal with whatever nonsense Jayne was up to now.

"Captain, wake up! There's something going on in the cargo bay!" Jayne shouted.

"There's nothing going on in the cargo bay Jayne. You just had another nightmare. Go back to your bunk," Mal yelled at him.

Inara whimpered as she woke from all the noise.

"I'm not kidding. There's something out there. I think them reavers woke up," Jayne yelled down.

With a groan, Mal got out of bed and climbed the ladder up to Jayne. "You and your paranoia over those reavers are beginning to damage my calm. The government is paying us good money to find all those reavers and inject them with the cure. If you want to be part of earnin' the goods, you need to shut it."

"But Captain there's-" A scream from the direction of the cargo bay cut off Jayne's words. Mal looked surprised at the sound. "See?" Jayne said.

"Yeah, I reckon I'm beginning to see. Let's go." Mal said following behind Jayne.

By the time they reached the cargo bay, Zoe had joined them, as had Badger who was the newest member of their crew. There were thirty reavers laying on the floor tranquilized just as they had left them. The mission yesterday had gone exactly as planned. The reaver ship had been disabled, boarded, and everyone inside had been shot with tranquilizers. Then Simon had weighed them, calculated the dosage, and injected them with the cure. After that they had been brought on board Serenity to be monitored until their blood tests showed signs of recovery. Simon would wake them up when the time was right. For every documented recovery the crew was paid a large amount of money, mandated by law as part of the Reaver Recovery Program. They had done this four times already with no problems.

"Everything looks fine from down here Captain," Zoe said, "So what was that scream we heard?"

"Maybe it was River," Mal said. "She still ain't quite right in the head. Could be she was out here screaming."

"I don't think so. Look," Jayne pointed to movement in the corner to their left. It was then that they saw that one of the cargo containers that should have been stacked against the wall was laying on its side on the floor. Something moved behind it. "That's my ammo container. I don't know how it fell over unless…"

Mal motioned to Zoe who nodded and moved in closer to the cargo container. Something was inside the container trying to slide the lid out of place.

"Whoever you are back there, come on out with your hands up," Mal said, gun raised.

No reply, no further movement except from Zoe as she inched closer.

"I ain't fooling," Mal went on, "You come out of there all peaceful like and no one's gonna hurt you."

"Captain," Zoe raised her hand to quiet him. "It's just a kid. She's naked."

"Not again…" Mal muttered.

Zoe moved a little closer. "I know you're scared honey, we're not here to hurt you. Come on out of there?"

"No," A voice answered, sounded like a kid, maybe a girl. "I can't."

"Okay, then I'm gonna come to you," Zoe said and she did. Zoe went around the cargo container and stopped short, "Put the gun down kid and no one will hurt you."

"I don't think so," The girl said, her voice shaken.

"There are four of us in this room with guns but we'll put down our guns if you'll put down yours." Zoe said calmly.

"Fine," The girl said. They heard the sound of her gun sliding across the floor.

Zoe bent and picked it up. There was a shelf of blankets nearby for their reaver patients. Zoe grabbed a blanket and gave one to the girl. "What's your name? What are you doing on our ship?"

"I'm just a stowaway." The girl said as Zoe put a blanket around her and led her out into the light where everyone could see her.

"Hey, I know you!" Jayne spoke up before Mal could react to this news of a stowaway. "You been following me all this time? What kind of a scam are you running?"

"It's not a scam! It was never a scam!" The girl said, starting to cry.

"Oh really? Then where's my five thousand dollars?" Jayne protested.

"How the hell did this little thing steal five thousand dollars from you?" Zoe asked, her tone almost amused.

"Well, it wasn't like she took it by force," Jayne said. "She tricked me."

"That must have been difficult," Simon said, joining them in the cargo bay just then.

Jayne wasn't listening. "How the heck did you get on this gorram ship? And what did you do with my ammo? Did you steal that too?"

"I didn't steal it. I didn't steal anything. I just wanted a chance to know my father a little better," She said, sounding genuinely distressed.

"I already gave you that chance and you ran off with five thousand dollars and two of my guns," Jayne replied. "What makes you think I'd trust you now?"

"Wait, is this girl actually your daughter Jayne?" Zoe asked.

Before Jayne could answer, the girl collapsed where she stood in the cargo bay. Simon was the first reach her but Jayne wasn't far behind. Simon began checking her vitals while Jayne watched, seemingly concerned.

"She probably passed out from low blood sugar," Simon said. "I doubt she had much to eat since she came on board. I could treat her better in the medbay."

Jayne knelt down without a word and carried the girl to the medbay himself.

"She gonna be okay?" Mal asked from the doorway of the medbay as Jayne laid the girl out on the table.

"I think so," Simon said.

"Okay, well you do your work doc. Jayne here is gonna meet with the rest of us in the galley. He's got some explaining to do," Mal said.

Five minutes later the entirety of the crew had gathered around the table where they usually took their meals.

"You mind tellin' us how it is that you know that there girl in our medbay?" Mal asked but it wasn't really a question and Jayne knew that.

"When we stopped for vacation three months back she showed up at my hotel room. Said her name was Charlie Denver. Said she was my daughter," Jayne began. "Course, I didn't believe her, told her to get lost but she kept coming back. Every day for ten days she came back. Same story over and over. The story did kinda made sense. Her mom was Pati Denver and was a bank guard. Years ago I was with some fellas who cased a bank. My job was to distract the guard and I did. I distracted her real good. I remembered her name tag said the name Pati Denver… anyway after a lot of days of Charlie bugging me, I agreed to a DNA test. Turns out, she really was my kid. She told me she was homeless. Her mom had died and her stepdad was abusive. So I let her in. I let her stay in my hotel room. On the last day of vacation, I woke up and and she was gone and so was my money and two of my guns…"

The room was filled with stunned silence. "Tell me you at least tried to look for her after that?" Kaylee spoke up.

"Of course I looked for the little rat. She had my money," Jaybe said, irritated. "I never did find it."

"Well then," Mal said, "If she's got no place else to go, far as I'm concerned, Charlie can stay."

"No, Mal, you don't want this kid on your ship," Jayne protested. "She will rob you blind. She will find everything of value and take it and run. She'd take the glasses right off your face."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I don't wear glasses," Mal said.

"Well I know that, it was just a figure of speech," Jaybe said.

"A figure of speech?" Mal said, "I'm impressed that you know about those. You're more educated that I thought. It's too bad you're such a heartless bastard."

"Hey!" Jayne started to argue.

He might have said more but Mal continued. "Your own flesh and blood Jayne…are you really suggesting that I kick her off my ship?"

"Well, we could leave her someplace nice, like a school for girls or something…" Jayne said. "But she can't stay here. After a week none of us would have anything left."

"Don't leave her at a school," River said, her eyes big and worried. "They do terrible things to the kids at schools. Terrible things...terribly terrifying things…"

"I'm afraid she's already been through some pretty terrible things," Simon said, as he entered the room and joined the crew. "She has scars, a lot of them. Someone abused her."

Everyone was glaring at Jayne, "Hey, it wasn't me that abused her!"

"No," Mal said. "It wasn't you, but you didn't do anything to stop it either. Now's your chance to see to it that that kid in there gets taken care of. So the question is, are you gonna run away like the coward I believe you to be, or you gonna finally be the man you claim you are?"


	2. Chapter 2

Jayne got to his feet on hearing Mal's words. "Fine, have it your way, but don't blame me when she robs you all blind."

"So is the kid okay?" Mal asked Simon after Jayne had left them.

"Yeah, I gave her some fluids. She should be waking up anytime," Simon said.

"Well, I wanna see her," Kaylee said sadly. "Poor kid has been alone and abused and her own father don't even wanna see her...Sometimes Jayne makes me so mad…"

"He never said he didn't want to see her," Badger spoke up, his first input on the situation. "He said she couldn't stay here. The girl did steal from him after all."

"Of course you would be on Jayne's side," Inara said, unimpressed.

"I'm not on anyone's side," Badger said. "Just trying to point a few things out is all. Jayne's not as stupid as you think. It could be that the kid is a regular con artist."

"I saw her up close when found her," Zoe said, "She had real tears on her face."

"To be fair, people can make themselves cry," Inara said. "I learned how as part of my training."

"You can make yourself cry?" Mal asked, a little disturbed by that. "How many other things you been faking?"

Inara only smiled in response. Kaylee got up from her chair. "Can I go see the kid now Captain?" She asked.

"Yeah, go ahead. We're done here." Mal said. He got up as well and followed Kaylee to the medbay to check on Charlie.

To Mal's surprise, Jayne was already in the medbay when they got there. He was sitting in a chair next to her bed watching her warily like someone might watch a rattlesnake about to strike. The kid was dressed in a hospital gown and had a blanket tucked around her. Now that he had a closer look at the girl, Mal could see that she did resemble Jayne. She had the same eyes, the same shade of brown hair, the same shape ears as Jayne did. It didn't really take a DNA test to see that she was his daughter. Kayle went into the room and took a chair on the other side of the bed and glared at Jayne as she sat down. Simon went in as well and set to work at the computer in the corner.

"You worried?" Mal asked Jayne from the doorway.

"No, I ain't worried," Jayne said, but his tone wasn't convincing.

"Kaylee, let me know when she wakes up?" Mal said and he left them.

"How can you be so cold?" Kaylee finally spoke up.

"Cold? She's the one who took advantage of me here!" Jayne protested. "I was trying to do something right for once in my life. I took her in and I gave her food, offered to send her to live with my mom because my work was too dangerous to bring her along. I even let her practice shooting with Vera. And she was all grateful and happy over that. Claimed it was the best thing that happened to her. Then she just up and left."

Kaylee was still angry but she said nothing.

"Was she any good?" Simon said from the corner. "At shooting, I mean."

Jayne smiled a little. "Yeah, she was pretty good."

"So you do like her," Kaylee said on seeing Jayne's proud response to Simon's question.

"I never said I didn't like her. I said we can't trust her. There is a difference," Jayne pointed out.

"Maybe she had a reason to steal from you," Kaylee said defensively. "Maybe she needed the money for something that she never told you about,"

"No. After she left, I did some checking. She robbed lots of people. Most times she pretended to be a lost orphan and would convince unsuspecting rich old ladies to take her in...and then she'd take the family jewels or bank codes," Jayne explained. "I was just another victim in her long life of crime."

"Long life of crime?" Simon said, "She can't be more than thirteen years old."

"She's twelve," Jayne said, "And she's been doing this since she was eight."

"What does she do with all the money?" Kaylee asked, confused.

Jayne shrugged, not knowing the answer.

"Well, you two have one thing in common," Simon said. "You both like money and guns."

"Shhh…" Jayne hushed them both. "She's waking up."


	3. Chapter 3

River wandered among the sleeping reavers in the cargo bay. She liked to watch them sleep. She liked knowing that for every minute they slept, their confused minds were healing. When they awoke they would still be confused. They always were. Some of them would start crying as they remembered the person they had been. Most of them would puke. That was okay though. After the first patients had made such a mess, Simon made sure to provide barf bags when he woke the patients. River and Inara were always there when Simon woke them. Sometimes the rest of the crew would join them but not Jayne. He didn't like seeing the reavers wake up. He didn't like all the emotion. She could understand that. The emotion from the recovering reavers was overwhelming. Inara was good at calming them. River was good at knowing which ones would respond with panic so that Simon could give them something to help them relax. Inara was good at calming some of the less anxious ones. River could tell by their eyes and their breathing who would panic and who would cry and who would just puke and who just needed someone to talk them through the fear. It was a very efficient process, the awakening, and somehow she liked it.

The Captain acted like he didn't really want to be involved in this project at all but River knew better. He did want to help these people recover. There was something of a humanitarian inside him in spite of his rough exterior. What the Captain didn't like, was being on the same side as the Alliance. Of course he knew that the Alliance was different now. The entire government had been overturned. Some of the senators remained but everything else was different. Still, the Captain was uncomfortable with being involved in a project associated with the Alliance. He had only agreed to be involved because of the money and because Inara had convinced him that it would be good to have a legal stable job and to be helping people instead of stealing from them for once.

Zoe didn't really want to be involved either but it wasn't out of principle, it was just because she didn't care about much of anything since Wash had died. At first she had said no, had said that she was going to find a planet to live on and settle down with the most boring job she could find. Mal had ordered her to stay on the Serenity. For a moment, Zoe had looked like she might actually defy her beloved Captain, but instead she teared up a little and she thanked him for the order.

And Badger, he had put in a bid of his own when the government called for contractors at the passing of the Reaver Recovery Act. He had actually been the first to receive a contract but his first mission had gone poorly and half his crew had died. The Serenity found Badger's damaged ship and brought him on board. Somehow, he had never left and everyone seemed to have accepted that.

As River walked among the reavers she wondered if they were dreaming while they slept. What would reavers dream about? What would partially recovered reavers dream about? It was a fascinating thought.


	4. Chapter 4

"The kid is awake, Captain," Kaylee told Mal when she came to him on the bridge.

"She say anything yet?" Mal said, getting up to follow Kaylee back to the medbay.

"She told Jayne she was sorry for stealing from him. Promised to pay it all back. He didn't seem inclined to believe her. Then I left to let you know she was awake," Kaylee said.

Mal found Charlie sitting up in bed with a tray of food in front of her. She was eating rather hurriedly so apparently the doctor had been right about her lack of food before. She barely looked up at him when he entered the room. Jayne didn't look at him at all.

"What's the idea of you sneaking on board my ship?" Mal said.

"Didn't have a choice," The girl said with a shrug.

"How's that?" Mal asked, not convinced by her flippant attitude.

"There were some fellas that would have killed me. I had to get offworld," She said with same cocky tone as before.

Kaylee frowned, saddened by where the tale was going.

Mal took a chair and sat down at the end of the bed. He crossed his arms and stared at her. "I suggest you start at the beginning of the story and explain to me how it is you came to be hiding out in my ship, and why."

Charlie's face showed signs for just a moment that she was intimidated by Mal and his questions but she quickly recovered and schooled her features to be uncaring again. "My employer wants me dead because I botched up a job."

"Your employer? What sort of a job?" Mal asked, dreading to know what sort of employment a twelve year old girl could possibly be involved in.

"I was eight when I saw an advertisement looking for child actors to be in a movie," Charlie explained. "My mom died when I was three and my stepdad was real piece of work so I ran off and tried to get a job. Except it wasn't actors for a movie that they wanted. They wanted actors who could get money from rich folks. They didn't even let kids with parents tryout for the job. It was just orphans and runaways and a few that were kidnapped. We had to learn all sorts of things about how to make folks feel sorry for us and how to stay in character and how to swipe jewels and pick locks and bypass basic security systems. Most of us, at first, said we didn't want to steal. They explained that we could cooperate and earn enough money to buy anything we want, or resist and have daily beatings. They injected a tracking device into us too. I didn't resist. I had enough beatings back home...it was a good job though. They were nicer to me than my stepdad ever was and I liked the money. I liked it until I muffed up everything anyway…"

"What exactly did you mess up?" Mal asked, wary. It sounded like she had been involved in some highly organized crime ring. He wanted to know what sort of danger could be following him.

"I was on a job to get bank codes from this old rich guy. I got the codes, almost made the transfer when he caught me. Guy was so mad that he grabbed this antique sword off the wall and tried to kill me. So I grabbed another sword from his collection and tried to kill him right back. I've never been so good with swords. I don't really like them. I was ranked lowest in my class in sword training and highest in firearms. So I guess it makes sense that I couldn't beat him. All I could do was get out of there. I never made the transfer and my blood was all over the place in his house. Job that big gets botched up, it means my life is on the line. Three of my friends were already killed for a screwup like that. There's no way I'm gonna be next."

"Please tell me you don't still have that tracking device on you," Mal said.

Charlie nodded her head. "I'm sorry. I was told that it cost five thousand dollars to get it removed," She looked up a Jayne. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before...I wanted to but...there was this guy who was supposed to remove it...when I went to him and he found out who I worked for he upped the price...by the time I came back, you were gone."

Jayne only nodded, he didn't say a word.

"You still haven't explained how you came to be in my cargo bay," Mal said.

"Well, I had his credit codes," Charlie indicated Jayne. "I got them the day he let me into his hotel room. I saw that he purchased a crate of ammunition and saw where the pickup was supposed to be. The rest was easy. If the crate hadn't fallen off the stack I might still be hiding out there."

"Doc, can you remove a tracking device?" Jayne asked, speaking up for the first time in all of this.

"I should be able to, depending on the location," Simon said.

"It's in my spine," Charlie said, anxiously.

"Oh. Well that does complicate things," Simon said.

"How much?" Mal asked.

"I'd have to do some scans to be sure but I have heard of people being paralysed from trying to remove spinal tracking devices," Simon explained. "It can be very dangerous."

Mal would have said more but River came rushing into the medbay. "Simon, three of them are ready!"

"Go ahead," Mal nodded, "Tend to your reaver patients. When you're done there you come straight back here and try and find out how to get rid of that tracker. In the meantime it looks like Jayne and Charlie have some things to discuss." And with that they all left the room and left the two alone.


	5. Chapter 5

"How angry are you?" Charlie asked Jayne once everyone had left the room.

"Well, I ain't too happy, but I'm glad they didn't kill you," He said.

"I brought back your guns," Charlie said sadly. "Zoe has one, there's another in the crate along with a few of mine."

"About that, what happened to your clothes?"

"Just before I snuck into the crate, I fell...into a pile of manure. I figured the smell would give me away and I didn't have time to get other clothes...so…I tossed the clothes and the gun bags and just kept the guns." Charlie explained, awkwardly.

"Good," Jayne nodded. "At least you didn't lose the clothes cause someone hurt you. So what happened to the money? How did you keep from getting caught all this time?"

"The guy who was supposed to remove the tracking device stole all the money. At least I stashed my guns someplace safe before I went to him, else I wouldn't have had nothing left." She explained. "After that I just kept moving. I know they were looking for me but maybe not too hard because that man I failed to rob, Thomas Kawaski, has figured out who hired me and they've been busy dealing with him. Once they're done with him, they'll come after me again."

Jayne sat silently for a moment before speaking again. "Did you plan to rob me from the beginning?"

"Yes," She whispered, then went on. "I tracked you down for that reason but by end I didn't want to. I was too scared to do anything else."

"Why didn't you just ask for help? I think you knew by then that I thought you were alright for a kid," He said, a little bitter.

"They taught us to never ask for money. They said that asking for money is the quickest way to get caught because it makes people suspicious and once they get suspicious they lock up their stuff and are more careful about their security." Charlie explained. "I couldn't risk asking for help. If you had said no then I'd have missed my only chance."

"I'm not talkin' 'bout asking for money. I'm talking 'bout askin' for help. Might be that I could protect you from those people that want you dead," Jayne said.

"I know," She nodded. "That's why I came back. You were nice to me the whole time I was with you. You never even threatened to hit me or anything...I have your credit codes still. You have enough money to pay to get my tracker removed.. But I didn't take the money...I couldn't do it…"

"Much as I appreciate that, you did still take my box of ammo," Jayne pointed out.

"I am sorry about that," She said sadly. "I didn't know any other way to get to you. I figured you'd ignore me if I sent a message to your ship and you might not agree to meet me and even if you did, you might not agree to take me with you. I didn't know what else to do."

"Sounds like you trust me about as much as I trust you," Jayne said.

"Sounds like it," She agreed. "Will you help me anyway?"

"Yeah Kid, I'll help however I can," Jayne told her. "First I'm gonna go change all my bank codes."


	6. Chapter 6

That night when they gathered for dinner, Charlie ate with the crew. She sat between Jayne and Kaylee and was dressed in some of Kaylee's clothes which were a little too big for her. For the most part the girl kept quiet as they all chatted about the few awakened reavers who had been moved to the bunk room. They were doing as well as could be expected. In a few days they would be dropped off at a counseling facility where they would receive psychological therapy before returning to whatever might be left of their lives. No one knew how long the therapy might take or if it would even work because the program was still so new.

As the crew talked, Charlie picked at her food. She stopped paying attention to the conversation until Zoe spoke to Jayne.

"Jayne, there were four guns in the crate Charlie was in. You want them in with your collection?" Zoe asked.

"Two of those were mine!" Charlie spoke up.

"I'll take my two back," Jayne said. "Put the other two in Charlie's room."

"She doesn't have a room yet," Zoe pointed out. "Besides, you really want a child to have guns?"

Charlie put her hand on Jayne's arm and look up at him pleadingly. "Don't let her take my guns. Please?"

Jayne looked torn. "Well now, Zoe might have a point. Usually kids your age don't use firearms unsupervised."

"I've had them for years already," She said her eyes filling with tears. "I can't sleep at night if I don't have a weapon."

"Neither can I," Jayne admitted, a little surprised that they had this in common. "So keep em as far as I'm concerned but you keep em put away and don't carry them around with you on the ship."

Inara rolled her eyes at what she had just seen while the rest of the crew looked on with a mixture of amusement and shock.

"Captain, couldn't we put Charlie in the room next to Jayne's?" Zoe asked at the end of the meal.

"I had the same thought myself," Mal said. " Why don't you take her there and show her where to store her guns?"

Zoe did as Mal asked and took Charlie from the room while everyone else got up to leave.

"Not you Jayne," Mal said before Jayne could exit. "Sit down."

Jayne returned to his chair.

"You really think it's safe for that girl to have guns on board my ship? You did say she couldn't be trusted." Mal said.

"Yeah, she can't be trusted if you got money lying around," Jayne said. "Or gold, or valuables, or even good guns, she's got an eye for good guns. But she stayed with me for a good two weeks and had guns of her own all that time. She ain't gonna hurt nobody."

Mal nodded his agreement. He doubted that the girl was capable of violence. "You still don't trust her but now that I'm watching, I can see you do care for her. Might be I was wrong about you," Mal said. "She tell you anything more about those people she worked for?"

"Only that she got caught thieving a man named Thomas Kawaski," Jayne said.

"She tells you anything that might be of use in stopping the people after her, you let me know. Her being here affects everyone on this ship," Mal ordered. "In the morning the doc is gonna see what he can do about that tracking device. In the meantime, just don't let her steal anything."

"Yes sir," Jayne said, and backed out, knowing that was his cue to leave.

In the middle of the night that night Jayne woke startled from sleep. His first thought was that some of the reavers might have woken up early. He grabbed Vera from the wall and listened, waiting for sounds from the cargo bay. The sounds didn't come from that direction at all. Instead the sound came from the room next to his, from Charlie's room. If he wasn't mistaken, it sounded like she was crying.

"Oh hell…" He muttered, not liking the sound of that at all. What was he supposed to do about that? He didn't know anything about crying kids. He supposed it did make sense that she was crying. There were some really bad people trying to kill her. They only way to stop them from tracking her was to undergo a risky surgery. She had memories of a stepfather who hurt her and was pretty worried that her real father was angry with her. That all sounded pretty scary, even to him.

With a sigh, Jayne hung Vera back on the wall and climbed the ladder out of his bunk room. He climbed down into Charlie's room and found her curled up on her bed, hugging her gun, weeping.

"Hey," He said, not really knowing what he was supposed to do now that he was there.

"Hey," She said with a sniffle.

"When you said you couldn't sleep without a weapon, I didn't expect that meant you'd keep it in your bed," He said, taking a few steps closer. "Be safer to hang it on the wall."

She shook her head, "Nothing is safe."

"Let me hang the gun up," he said gently. She let him take the weapon. He hung it on the wall and then sat down on the edge of her bed. "You worried about the tracking device?"

"Yes," She whispered, "That and everything else. I keep thinking that if I close my eyes, when I open them, someone will be here to kill me...I can't close my eyes...I can't go to sleep...it's not safe."

"Anyone wants to kill you they'll have to go through me first," Jayne said, meaning every word. The kid might be a thief but she was still a good kid. There was no way in hell he would let anyone hurt her.

"Then...will you stay with me?" She asked, worriedly.

"Yeah. Sure," he took her gun down from the wall and settled down on the floor next to her bed. Not because he needed the gun but because he knew she would feel safer if he had a weapon to protect her with. He heard her breath a sigh of relief and moments later she reached over and rested her hand on his shoulder as if to reassure herself that he was still there even with her eyes closed. Fifteen minutes later, Charlie was asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Jayne woke early in the morning to the sound of Mal yelling down to him from the hallway. "Jayne, get your carcass out here. We got trouble brewing!"

Jayne got to his feet, not looking forward to explaining to the Captain why he wasn't in his own room. Being in the kid's room might make him seem sentimental. He climbed out of the room and found Mal waiting in front of the next room, his room.

"What happened?" Mal asked, on seeing the room Jayne came from.

"Kid was too scared to sleep," Jayne explained.

The captain only nodded. "Two of the patients are missing from the cargo bay. Someone unlocked the doors last night. Doc says they've been treated long enough that they aren't fully reavers anymore but they still might not be quite rational neither."

"I'm on it," Jayne said, knowing that he was expected to help look for and sedate the missing people.

Charlie climbed out of her room just then. "Can I help?"

"You'd best wait this out in your room," Mal told her.

"But what if…?" Charlie began but didn't finish the words.

She didn't have to finish the words anyway. Jayne knew that she was afraid to be alone. That crate in the cargo bay must have been absolutely terrifying for her. He didn't have the heart to send her back to face her fears alone.

"It's only two reavers Captain," Jayne said, "She could come with me."

"She can obey my orders and so can you," Mal said, a little annoyed with Jayne.

Jayne felt Charlie's hand grip his arm. "Can I at least have my gun back?"

Jayne hadn't even realized he was still carrying her weapon. He nodded and gave the gun back to her. She took it and went down to her room.

"Nice gun," Mal said as she left. "Let's go. We got work to do."

"Who left the cargo bay unlocked?" Jayne asked as he moved to follow Mal.

"I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me," Mal said pointedly.

"It's wasn't Charlie if that's what you're thinking. She was with either the Doc or me all day yesterday."

"Maybe, but Badger has been doing some checking and as far as he can tell, Thomas Kawaski don't exist," Mal told him, clearly unhappy with the news.

Jayne wasn't too happy with the news either. "Well, tell him to keep looking." There had to be an explanation and he hoped that the explanation didn't mean the Charlie was telling more lies and up to another of her scams.

"I will," Badger said, joining them. "First I have reavers to look for."

An hour later Charlie was in the medbay with Simon and Jayne. The reavers had been caught and sedated easily enough and now it was time for Charlie to have her scan. Mal, Zoe, and Kaylee waited outside the door. The rest of the crew had gathered as well just a little further down the hall. Jayne watched the whole proceedings with arms crossed, trying to pretend he wasn't worried.

"I have good news and I have bad news," Simon said, turning away from his computer screen to face the direction where Jaybe stood and Mal in the doorway.

"Well, out with it," Jayne said, when Simon took too long to continue.

"The tracking device isn't in her spine," Simon explained. "It isn't anywhere. Charlie doesn't have a tracking device."

"How is that possible?" Charlie asked, anxious at the way everyone was staring at her.

"I'll tell you how it's possible," Mal said, angry. "You been lying to us. You been lying this whole time. Jayne tried to warn me about you and I didn't listen. He had a good question when you first got here so I'm gonna ask it again, What kind of scam are you running?"

Charlie didn't seem to have anything to say. She looked quite terrified. Jayne uncrossed his arms and then crossed them again. Looking at him, it was plain to see that the man was conflicted about the entire situation. He was both angry and worried about the kid and didn't know what to do about it.

"You gonna answer my question or not kid?" Mal said, taking a step closer to her. He wasn't actually going to to do anything, he only moved to make a point, the point being that he expected an answer.

Charlie flinched in response.

"Now, you wait just a gorram minute!" Jayne said, stepping between Charlie and Mal.

"You mean to tell me that you don't want to know what she's really up to, Jayne?" Mal asked him.

"You want answers? Let River ask the questions. She can read minds and she ain't as scary as you are," Jayne insisted.

Mal glanced over at Charlie. She was sitting curled up in her bed hugging her knees. She looked to be frightened but how would a person even know if it was real or not? Mal felt Inara's hand on his arm.

"I think she really is afraid of you Mal," Inara said.

"Fine," Mal agreed, trusting Inara's judgement. She was usually right about these things after all. "River can ask the questions." And with that, Mal exited the medbay to wait in the hall while River did her mind magic.


	8. Chapter 8

River didn't really need the list of questions that Mal handed to her as she entered the medbay with Simon, Jayne, and Charlie. She knew what to ask. It was the second time she had been in a room with Charlie and just as she had the previous night at dinner, River could feel her fear and loneliness. It was so overwhelmingly sad that it made River start to cry. She took a chair next to the bed. Simon remained at his computer chair in the corner while Jayne stood across the other side of the bed, arms crossed, watching.

"You don't have to be afraid," River said, but she was speaking to both Jayne and Charlie. "All we want is the truth."

"I can't give you that," Charlie said.

"Because someone will hurt you if you do," River said, understanding far more than the words Charlie had spoken. The best way forward was to let the girl know that she couldn't hide the truth from her. "I can see into your mind. I can see two things most of all. First I see your stepfather. He shouldn't have beaten you when you broke the antique vase. He shouldn't have punched you in the face because you forgot to take out the trash. Alex Walterson is a very evil man. I understand why you ran away from him," River brushed away her own tears before going on.

"But you ran away to someone even worse," River continued. "Anna Fitzgold is a different sort of evil. Her greed is ruining the lives of all those kids...so many children…" It was difficult for River to stay composed. River took a breath and went on. "Did Anna send you here?"

Charlie burst into tears at the question. "Yes, yes she sent me here! There was never a Thomas Kawaski, he was just part of my cover story to get me in here...I did got to try and get my tracker removed and the man said he couldn't help me! And Jayne really is my father. That's why she sent me to him the first time, she thought he would be an easy target because of the DNA match. Later she found out where he worked and took the chance to send me here to make sure that your crew doesn't get paid and that she gets the money instead."

"So you hoped Simon could remove the tracker she told you you had?" River asked.

"Yes," Charlie breathed her answer.

"Then why did you open the cargo bay doors last night?" River asked though she could already guess the answer, she just needed Charlie to say it for the crew's sake.

"I was exploring the ship while everyone slept. Because if something went wrong, if the tracker I thought I had couldn't be removed or if Anna and her men caught up to me, I had to have something to give them or I really would be in danger. I didn't want to do any of this, not this job, not this time." Charlie said.

"Why not?" Jayne asked, speaking for the first time in all of this.

Charlie couldn't answer, she couldn't seem to control her tears.

"Because she loves you," River answered for her. "She doesn't want to go back to Anna Fitzgold and she doesn't want to keep stealing from people. She wants to stay with her father if he will forgive her enough to allow it."

"That's not gonna happen though," Charlie spoke through her tears. "He hates me now and Anna will come for me once I've failed this job…"

Jayne still wasn't talking. He was too emotional to trust himself to speak so River spoke for him.

"No, Jayne doesn't hate you. And he's certainly not gonna let Anna take you." River said, knowing exactly how Jayne felt about Charlie. "He would kill anyone who tried to hurt you. He might even kill them if they looked at you wrong."

Charlie wiped her tears and dared to look up at Jayne for a moment. "Really?"

Jayne nodded. "Really," He agreed with the things River had taken out of his thoughts.

At that, Charlie got to her feet and hugged him, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry…" She sobbed as she clung to him.

River got up and grabbed her brother's arm. "Simon we need to go," She said and dragged him out of the room. As they left the room they saw Jayne was hugging his distraught daughter close and he reached down and kissed her on top of her head.

"You hear all that?" River asked Mal as she and Simon went out into the hall.

"I did," Mal said, not too pleased but also relieved to have the truth.

"You gonna let her stay, in spite of everything?" Simon asked.

Mal thought for a moment before answering, "We need Jayne on our crew. You really think he'd kill for her?" He asked River.

"He would die for her," River replied.

"Charlie stays," Mal said. "Just...keep an eye on her for a while longer, River. Just to be sure."

"I will," She agreed but she knew she didn't need to. She could feel Charlie's sorrow and guilt pouring out of the room behind her. Any loyalty that the girl had to her employer was gone now. The only loyalty the girl had left was to her father.


	9. Chapter 9

"What do you suppose they're doing in there?" Kaylee asked Simon. She and Simon were in the cargo bay with Inara and River preparing to wake up the rest of their patients. As soon as Charlie had calmed down from the results of her scan and her talk with River, Jayne had sent Charlie off with Zoe and demanded a discussion with Mal.

"I don't know," Simon shrugged. "Pass me those test strips."

"But don't you think he seemed really mad?" Kaylee said, handing Simon the box of test strips.

"Who? Mal or Jayne?" Simon asked as he pricked a finger of one of his patients and squeezed a drop of blood onto a test strip.

"Jayne. He was pretty mad at the Captain for frightening Charlie with his questions." Kaylee explained.

"I don't think he was exactly...mad." Simon disagreed gently.

"He was mad," Inara spoke up as she set out barf bags next to each matt on the floor. "And so was Mal."

"I don't see why either one of them should be angry," Simon replied. "Anyone can see that Charlie didn't have much choice in what she did. Sure, she put the ship in danger but it's not as if she wanted to. She's just a child caught in a bad situation. As for Jayne, he barely knows Charlie. I didn't think he even liked her and now he's mad at the Captain for speaking to her a little forcefully?"

"Don't be stupid Simon, of course he liked her," River said.

"I couldn't tell," Simon protested. "Not everyone can read minds and feel other people's emotions like you can River."

"Even I noticed that Jayne cares about Charlie," Kaylee said. "Though I admit it is hard to tell how deep it might go, he's so stoic and indifferent all the time."

"It goes very deep," River told them, emotion in her voice. "For both of them. It's all very confusing to be near them because there is so much guilt and fear from them both but there is love too."

"Guilt and fear?" Simon asked, "Why?"

"Because Charlie knows it was wrong to steal from her father and Jayne feels guilt for not being in her life sooner. The fear...Jayne just doesn't know how to be a father, that's why he tried to send her away...not because she was a thief but because he was afraid he couldn't take care of her right...Charlie has suffered a lot. Every moment of every day she is afraid. She only feels safe when she is near Jayne and he is armed." River explained.

"Okay, but there's still one thing I don't understand," Simon said. "Jaybe doesn't exactly strike me as a safe person. I don't think any kid would look at him and think he was safe. How does she trust him?"

"He protects her," Inara said. "We all saw him step between Charlie and Mal. We know Mal would have never hurt that girl but she didn't know it. Jayne makes an effort to make her feel safe. He probably did the same sort of thing back when they met on that vacation. She seems like she is an intelligent kid and she has been hurt enough that she must notice when someone is being protective."

"All the blood tests look good," Simon changed the topic. "Ready to begin?"

"You got something to say to me, say it and be done with it," Mal said to Jayne. They were standing in the kitchen, Jayne leaned against the wall, arms crossed while Mal leaned against the door frame.

"First of all, if you ever scare Charlie like that again, expect to at least get a black eye for it and the two of us will be off your ship for good," Jayne said, angry.

"Weren't my intention to scare her," Mal said, "But that's fair."

"Secondly," Jayne went on, "We're gonna have a problem when we land at the facility with the Reavers. Charlie says Anna Fitzgold and at least a four of her security guards are expecting to pick her up at the spacedock."

"How do you know that isn't just another one of her stories? Or a trap?" Mal asked.

"Charlie knows she can't lie to us now, not when River can find out the truth right out of her mind," Jayne protested. "So you gonna help me end this or do I need to take them all down alone? Because I'll take em down alone if need be…"

"You might die trying," Mal pointed out.

"I might," Jayne admitted. "But I'm going after them with or without you."

"Ain't no need for you to go alone. I'm in," Mal said.


	10. Chapter 10

"Tomorrow when we drop off our patients, we're gonna do things different than usual," Mal said to the crew when they had gathered that evening for supper. "Seems that Charlie's former employer is gonna be waiting for her once we land. Jayne ain't planning to let those people near the kid ever again and frankly neither do I."

Kaylee breathed a sigh of relief. "So you two weren't fighting earlier today? You were making a plan to save Charlie?"

"We had a few words is all," Mal said. "It's done with now."

"So what's the plan, Captain?" Zoe asked.

"Some of us are gonna take our patients to the facility and do the paperwork as usual. Some of us are gonna go meet up with Anna Fitzgold and her people, and someone's gotta stay on the ship with Charlie," Mal said.

"I'll stay with her," Kaylee offered.

Jayne nodded, "Zoe should stay too, just in case of trouble."

"Agreed," Mal said, "Simon, River, and Badger, you go with the patients. Jayne and I are going to dock 12. That's where they'll be."

"What about me?" Inara asked.

"I need you to park your old shuttle at dock eleven," Mal said. "And stay inside, don't come out for anything. We'll come to you."

"Understood," Inara said.

Shortly after Jayne had gone to bed that night he heard Charlie leave her bunk. He hoped she hadn't gone exploring the ship again and wasn't up to any more schemes. Moments later her heard a timid knock on his door.

"Come in," He called out to her.

She climbed down into his room carrying a rolled up sleeping mat, a pillow, and a blanket. She didn't seem to have any guns with her.

"Is it...is it okay if I stay in here?"

"It's fine," He said. He supposed she would eventually be able to sleep in her own room once Anna and her people were gone and she got used to the idea that she was safe.

"Thank you," She said as she unrolled her mat and arranged her pillow and blanket.

"Are you going to kill Anna tomorrow?" Charlie asked him.

"The plan is to turn her over to the law, but I'll kill her if I have to," Jayne said plainly.

"Oh," Charlie sounded disappointed.

"You don't want her killed?" He asked, unsure what she was upset about.

"No, I do," Charlie said, her voice breaking. "She never beat me or hit me at all but that was only because I did what she told me to do. Some of my friends weren't so lucky. Later, she killed my friends. I wasn't so good at being a thief at first but my friend Tommy was really good at it. Anna sent us to a job together. The story was supposed to be that I was his little sister. Except I messed up the whole thing. I got caught and Tommy took the blame… to protect me I guess. Anna shot him in the head for that and made me watch. She did the same to two more friends who failed their jobs...some nights I fall asleep imagining what it might be like to kill her… but that's a horribly wicked thing to wish for, isn't it?"

"No," Jayne said sadly, "It ain't so horrible. That woman deserves to be dead."

"I don't just want her to be dead. I want her to be afraid. I want her to know what it's like to spend every day in fear of her life, afraid that if she fails, someone will hunt her down and put a bullet in her brain. And I know that's wrong. I watched lots of movies with good guys and bad guys. The good guys aren't supposed to make the bad guys suffer. They're supposed to be better than that." Charlie said with a sniffle. "I don't think I can ever be one of the good guys."

"Kid, the movies aren't the place to learn about right and wrong," Jayne said, saddened by her story. "The truth is, even the good guys have some bad stuff in em, and the bad guys probably weren't always bad. The fact that you want to do the right things puts you miles ahead of most people. You ain't a bad kid Charlie and there's no wrong in wanting to see the people who hurt you suffer, least not in my book."

Charlie didn't reply to that but Jayne could tell that his words had affected her. He could hear her crying for a short time. "Can I ask one more thing and then I'll go to sleep?" She asked after a few minutes.

"Sure."

"Is it alright if I call you Dad?"

"Yeah, it's fine by me. I might even prefer it," He said truthfully.


	11. Chapter 11

"Aren't you fixing to bring more guns than that?" Jayne asked Mal the next morning. Mal wore two guns. They had just watched the reaver patients leave the ship with part of the crew.

"I'm just the back-up this time. I don't need more guns," Mal said.

For a moment Jayne just stared at him. "Man can never bring too many guns."

The pair of them reached dock twelve a short walk later. As planned, Jayne went in first and Mal followed at a distance. There were multiple people milling about but it didn't take him long to spot a woman with four men who could only be bodyguards of some sort. They were armed, most likely, but the weapons were well concealed, though not concealed as well as his own weapons. She was blonde, well dressed like a wealthy woman. Maybe she might have even been pretty if he didn't hate the sight of her so much. Now that he'd found Anna, Jayne turned back to Mal and nodded. Mal left him and went around to the other side of the dock, taking a position behind her. Once Mal was in position, Jayne walked straight up to her.

"You Anna Fitzgold?" He said.

"As a matter of fact I am," She said, one eyebrow raised. "I must admit, I didn't expect to find you here, Jayne Cobb. How is our dear girl, Charlie?"

"She ain't yours," Jayne said, angry.

"Well she isn't as much yours as you might think. She might have your DNA but I trained her well. She'll come back to me. She always does." Anna took a step back. Her guards drew their guns on Jayne.

"Not so fast," Mal said from directly behind her, his gun on the back of her head, so close it was touching her hair. "Order your men to drop their guns and leave."

Anna nodded almost imperceptibly. Her men put down their guns and all but ran away.

"Well now, that wasn't so difficult," Mal said as Jayne put handcuffs on Anna's wrists.

"Let's go," Jayne said through gritted teeth as he grabbed the woman by the arm and roughly pulled her to follow him.

********************************888888

"I have an idea," Kaylee said as she sat with Zoe and Charlie at the kitchen table. "We could make cookies."

"I don't think all of us are quite up for that," Zoe said, glancing over at Charlie. The girl looked worried. "Jayne is going to be okay," Zoe told her. "He's good with a gun. He'll be fine."

"I know...I just...I need to use the bathroom," Charlie got up and fled from them.

"Poor kid…" Kaylee muttered. "Maybe I'll just make cookies anyway. You wanna help? There's nothing else to do."

"Wash would have laughed at me baking...Alright. Just this once." Zoe agreed.

The second batch was baking when Zoe suddenly stopped short. "Charlie has been gone a long time."

"You don't suppose she...left?" Kaylee asked.

"We'd better hope not, Anything happens to her and Jayne might just kill us."

***************************8888

The moment that Inara opened the shuttle doors for Mal and Jayne, she recognized the woman that they had captured. She hadn't recognized her name, it was probably a fake name anyway, but she definitely recognized her face. This was not good.

"Inara Serra, it's a pleasure to see you," The woman said in a charming tone as Jayne dragged her on board.

"I'm afraid the pleasure is all yours," Inara said. "Closing the shuttle doors behind them."

"You two have met?" Mal asked, putting his gun back in the holster now that she was securely on board.

"Unfortunately yes," Inara said. They had only met once. It hadn't been a pleasant experience. "It's a long story."

"We ain't got time for long stories," Jayne said, we need to go before her guards get some more more weapons or backup and hightail it back here."

"It's not going to matter how fast we get out of here," Inara said, fear in her tone but she reached for the controls anyway.

Anna smiled a small smile. "I see you are aware of my reputation."

"Of course I am. You were expelled from the Companion Guild. You used your training to exploit children," Inara said, disgusted.

"That's not the reputation I was speaking of," The woman said, disappointed.

"You mean the people who die trying to stop you? You've taught children to carry out executions and rescue you from capture. Yes, I am aware of that too," Inara said, wondering at that moment if Charlie had been taught to do the same.

"Looks like you got yourself captured this time though," Jayne said.

"Looks can be deceiving," Anna said, amused.

"They sure can," Charlie rolled out from under the bed, gun in hand.

"Charlie, what are you doing?" Jayne asked her as the girl got to her feet with no intention of putting down the gun.

"She's doing what I taught her to do," Anna said, amused and pleased with herself.

"Not this time," Charlie disagreed. "The only person gonna die here today is you."

"You're not going to kill me," Anna scoffed.

"I sure as hell am!" Charlie lifted the gun and fired straight at Anna's head. The gun only clicked. Charlie tried a second time, again click. "What did you do to my gun?" Charlie asked Jayne and Mal.

"Disabled it is all," Mal said. "Last night Inara told us that it might be necessary to stop you, so we did."

"He did," Jayne said. "I didn't expect you would betray us."

"I didn't betray you…" Charlie said, her voice breaking. "I only wanted her dead, is all."

"She will be, but not like this," Jayne said.

"Then how?" Charlie asked, still upset.

"Next mission on a reaver ship, we send her in first," Mal said.

"What?" Anna turned ghostly white.

"You heard me," Mal said. "You'll make a good distraction. Won't have to waste nearly so many tranquilizers this way."

Later, back on the Serenity, Anna was locked in a room while most of the crew sat at the table eating cookies. Jayne had taken apart one of Charlie's guns and was working on putting it back together properly. Charlie sat in the corner of the room, curled up hugging her knees.

"She look scared to you, River?" Mal asked River.

"She doesn't like having that woman on board the ship instead of dead. She is very afraid, Always." River said.

"I thought so," Mal said and he left the table and approached Charlie. She flinched a little as he came nearer, thankfully Jayne hadn't noticed. Mal sat down on the floor next to her. "I apologize for scaring you, just now and before when the reavers got out."

Charlie's eyes widened. "Thank you sir."

"You ain't got no cause to be afraid of anyone on this ship, not even me," Mal told her. "If this ship is gonna be your home, you shouldn't be afraid in it. I suppose I can be a mite scary sometimes but I never mean any harm."

Charlie nodded. "It's hard to know who to trust sometimes. It's nothing personal."

"That's a sentiment I can understand," Mal agreed. "They made cookies over there. Don't tell me you don't like cookies?" He said, getting to his feet. He reached a hand down to help her up. Hesitantly she took it and joined her new family at the table.


End file.
